When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published its final rule for Stage 2 meaningful use on Aug. 29, it trumpeted the "flexibility" it offered for how providers can use certified electronic health records.

Specifically, the rule allowed providers to use the 2011 Edition certified EHRs, or a combination of 2011 and 2014 Edition technology for the reporting period in 2014. By 2015, all eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals are required to use the 2014 Edition certified IT.

“We listened to stakeholder feedback and provided CEHRT flexibility for 2014 to help ensure providers can continue to participate in the EHR Incentive Programs forward,” said CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, in a press statement.

But industry groups did not feel listened-to. And they definitely did not see much in the way of flexibility – at least when it came to reporting periods – a topic on which they'd lobbied particularly hard.

"CHIME is deeply disappointed in the decision made by CMS and ONC to require 365-days of EHR reporting in 2015," said Russell P. Branzell, chief executive officer of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, in a press statement responding to the new rule.

"This means that penalties avoided in 2014 will come in 2015, and millions of dollars will be lost due to misguided government timelines," he added. "Now, the very future of meaningful use is in question."

Other stakeholders were similarly wary of CMS' next steps. Even the day before that final rule, MGMA Policy Advisor Robert Tennant (perhaps intuitively sensing what it would contain), told Healthcare IT News that, "We've raised numerous concerns about where meaningful use is going. If significant changes are not coming in the program, I think the program risks a lot. We could see, frankly, failure of the program."

In mid-September, CHIME, MGMA and more than a dozen other stakeholders joined forces to write a pointed letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell – Tavenner and National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo, MD, were CC'd – to reiterate their serious concern that the success of meaningful use "hinges on addressing the 2015 reporting period requirements.

While the groups – which included HIMSS, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and more – thought their concerns had been heard and would be acknowledged in the Aug. 29 rule, they "were surprised to learn that flexibilities meant to mitigate 2014 challenges did not also address program misalignment in 2015 and beyond."

The numbers speak for themselves, the groups argued. As of September, just 143 hospitals and 3,152 providers have been able to meet Stage 2 with 2014 Edition EHRs.

"This represents less than 4 percent of the hospitals required to be Stage 2-ready within the next 15 days," according to the letter. "And while eligible professionals have more time, they are in comparatively worse shape, with only 1.3 percent of their cohort having met the Stage 2 bar thus far."

While the stakeholders reiterated their commitment to meaningful use, they urged Secretary Burwell to "take immediate action by shortening the 2015 EHR reporting period to 90 days" – and also by adding more wiggle room with regard to Stage 2's notoriously troublesome transitions of care and view/download/transmit measures.

The very next day, a new bi-partisan bill seeking to offer providers meaningful relief was drafter on Capitol Hill. Republican North Carolina Congresswoman Renee Ellmers introduced H.R. 5481, The Flexibility in Health IT Reporting (Flex-IT) Act of 2014, on Sept. 16.

Co-sponsored with Democratic Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, the new legislation is crafted to offer providers more flexibility in showing meaningful use compliance. Specifically, according to Ellmers' office, it would remedy HHS' "short-sighted final rule" requiring 365 days of EHR reporting in 2015.

The Flex-IT Act would allow providers to report their technology upgrades in 2015 through a 90-day reporting period as opposed to a full year. It would be welcome relief for legions of providers, who say the shortened reporting window would help them better manage meaningful use's many onerous mandates.

"The meaningful use program has many important provisions that seek to usher our health care providers into the digital age," said Ellmers in a press statement. "But instead of working with doctors and hospitals, HHS is imposing rigid mandates that will cause unbearable financial burdens on the men and women who provide care to millions of Americans. Dealing with these inflexible mandates is causing doctors, nurses, and their staff to focus more on avoiding financial penalties and less on their patients."

By giving providers the option to choose any three-month quarter for the EHR reporting period in 2015 to qualify for MU, "hundreds of thousands of providers" would have a better shot of meeting Stage 2 requirements safely and effectively, she said.

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